Monday, October 16, 2006

The City Of Brotherly Love

Yep, it's Philly. We had a great visit to the home of the Liberty Bell and an up close look at some of what's happening on the campuses there. The city is beautiful and diverse, steeped in history and overflowing with colleges and universities. We didn't see them all, but we saw a bunch... you can't go anywhere in Philly without passing at least a dozen schools. We did get to walk on five campuses and would love for you to pray with us for the campuses, ministries and churches in the greater Philadelphia area.

The Owls. Temple has an urban vibe and is one of the most diverse student bodies in the nation.The Dragons. Cool mascot for Drexel University, a sprawling urban campus with tons of commuters.The Quakers of Penn...as in The University of Pennsylvania. This Ivy League stalwart was founded by Ben Franklin and is the oldest secular institution of higher learning in North America.The Hawks and Cats. Villanova and St. Joseph's are small-medium sized Catholic universities with rich traditions.

As we talked with believers in Philly we were encouraged by the emerging church throughout the city and the active presence of His people on many campuses. But we were also faced with the reality that in most cases followers of Christ number less than 5% of the student body, meaning 95% of Philly students could potentially sleep again tonight without a taste of the mercy and rescue of their Creator.

May liberty reach the hearts of all Philly's students. And may His renown echo again in the city of love.

PS-In the spirit of fairness, we've also had folks from our team at UNLV and OSU this fall as we seek to learn more about what's happening across the nation. Go Rebs and Buckeyes!

10 Comments:

Those percentages sound very similar to ours up here in Canada... :( In the past couple of days, I've been learning about a ministry in Philadelphia called the Simple Way...very cool.Have fun in Philly

I agree though, that while there are lots of bright little spots where the Holy Spirit clearly is working, these areas are often surrounded by just 95% or more of people whom the goodness just passes by. I'm sure that's true for Phila, ATL, and many, many, many other places.

The awesome news is: There's nothing that God can't do! Like, for example, my parents are now believers. "Baby believers," if you will, with lots of questions, but they get it! That, to me, is unbelievable (well, then again, I believe).

Oh, and by the way, here's a late "thanks" for the friendships that have "happened" through P'06... 5 volunteers of us are in touch regularly still, and I can't wait to have a mini- "reunion" in Atlanta! Except for maybe one or two of them, but I can always visit some of them on my own time:)

Silke

P.S. Dear anonymous, Passion's everywhere! That's where we went when we left Nash-Vegas!

I'm sorry that we missed you in Philly! We were there just before you made it, working on a campus that you missed out on. And how could you not stop by and see the Rams of West Chester University?!

But, we're glad you did make it to our soon-to-be fair city as we prepare to work with college students at WCU! Thanks for stopping by.

Oh, and just to clarify, our metro director for collegiate ministries likes to be all inclusive rather than gender limiting in the description of the city. Here's his take on Philly: The City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection. Just thought you'd like to know.

i'm a student at a Christian school in southcentral PA but am attending Temple for the semester. living right on broad street in north philly, across the street from Temple's main campus, it's opened my eyes to the secular world - a world that exists completely separate from God. i get a chance to see the positive things happening in Philly (such as The Simple Way that someone mentioned) but i also see its need for God, especially on the campuses. passion and people with the same mission are needed. keep it up!